Posted on 02/28/2013 11:27:04 AM PST by BenLurkin
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Earthquakes are part of living in California.
But Randy Paige, reporting for CBS2 and KCAL9, says Mother Nature might not be solely to blame for the Earth’s shaking.
Many scientists are concerned with fracking — the use of hydraulics to get gas and oil out of the ground — and suggest the practice might be responsible for increased seismic activity.
“We call this induced seismicity,” says US Geological Survey Seismologist Lucy Jones.
She says earthquakes can be triggered when waste water, used in the hydraulic process is disposed of by injecting the water deep into the Earth.
The process, she believes, touched off a 5.6 magnitude quake in Oklahoma, a 5.0 in Colorado, 1 4.8 in Wyoming and a 4.0 in January of last year.
“It’s very clear cut that disposing of waste fluids at depth can and does set off earthquakes,” Jones said.
Paige asks Jones what the process of fracking would mean to California. Simple, says Jones. “Our hypothesis would be that we could set off earthquakes.”
She also believes that the quakes set off in California would be more severe — our faults are larger and deeper.
Oil industry spokesperson Dave Quast says waste water from fracking has been done in California — for decades — with no known quakes triggered by the process.
He believes it is because less water has to be used here to produce oil. “In the east in a hydraulic fracturing operation there might be five million or more gallons of water used. Here in California, it might be a small percentage of that. It might be closer to 115 or 120,000 gallons of water,” Quast said.
Oil industry watchdog Judy Dugan is dubious. “We can’t depend on the word of oil companies.”
Jessica Black and her newborn live directly behind an oil field in Ventura County. State documents show her area was at the center of a fracking operation.
“That’s very scary,” Black said. “I think we definitely, we need to know more.”
Jones agrees the long term impact on fracking in California is not known. “So we have proposed a study and we have a team of people who have been put together,” said Jones.
“So we have proposed a study and we have a team of people who have been put together,” said Jones.
Translation - Send more money!
By that logic North Dakota is going to have 7.9 EQ soon.
In the meantime, pay no attention to the Bernankster behind the curtain creating zillions of $ out of thin air and giving it to his banker and political friends in government; all in the ostensible best interests of "the economy."
It’s more likely that fart-mouth liberals cause earthquakes.
Aside from glow-bull warming, I cause earthquakes now? Cool!
Here we go again.
I am getting really tired of the cast of “The Big Bang Theory” posing as “scientists”.
They’re actors!
/sarc
Fracking doesn’t cause earthquakes — FRACKING CAUSES GLOBAL WARMING!
Wrong.
Injection wells largely dispose of production saltwater.
Actually, if fracking did do this, it could save countless lives and billions of dollars.
Simple question: What is more destructive, three dozen 1.0 magnitude earthquakes, or one 6.0 magnitude quake?
In some circumstances, after a big earthquake in an earthquake prone region, it might be a very good idea to relieve stress by causing a whole bunch of little earthquakes.
We need a better set of data on which to decide. With so much at stake environmentally and economically the world has to make the correct decision. Cannot afford to be wrong.
This is a good thing.
Better to release that tension building up in small harmless increments instead of letting it accumulate it one big one.
I was going to say pretty much the same thing.
Wow. Humans can now cause earthquakes! Amazing.(sar.)
““We call this induced hysteria,” says US Geological Survey Seismologist Lucy Jones.”
Follow the money.
Fracking will also cause meteorites, tsunamis and tooth decay.
Studies being funded now!
/s
A very few greedy scientists with a lberal bias think they need more money! Government come in a save them! They need more of our money to stud this “serious” issue!
SOURCE:
http://energeticcity.ca/article/news/2013/02/14/context-everything-when-linking-fracking-earthquakes
Kevin Heffernan of the Canadian Society of Unconventional Resources was at the Fort St. John and District Chamber of Commerce luncheon today, speaking about the link between fracking and earthquakes. He argues that reading headlines about induced seismicity may raise some concerns, but that “context is everything”.
“If you define earthquakes the right way, everything that we do as humans is causing earthquakes, we just can’t detect them,” he told the crowd. “These are very, very minor events that are occurring two kilometres under ground.”
A recent study released by the Oil and Gas Commission found that fracking has caused several low-level earthquakes in the Horn River Basin.
Between April 2009 and December 2011, 38 were reported by Natural Resources Canada, and another 234 were recorded by seismographs in the Etsho and Kiwigana areas. The largest earthquake ever attributed to fracking in the Horn River Basin registered at a 3.8 on the Richter scale, but Heffernan says it’s more typically to see “microseisms” in the minus three to zero magnitude.
He calls earthquakes a “badly misunderstood phenomenon”, and points out that there are millions of these low-level seismic events every year which are induced by human activity. He adds that there was no risk to public safety or the environment from any of those events.
“We do lots of things as people that induce earthquakes,” he says, like underground mining, dam construction, disposal wells and geothermal development. 40:30 “If it was me, I wouldn’t get hung up about about induced seismicity.”
He maintains that there are bigger risks to worry about from the oil and gas industry, particularly problems that occur at the surface of well sites, like during the movement of chemicals and trucks.
“That makes me a big proponent of multi-well pads, because it reduces the amount of men and materials and vehicles that are moving around the countryside, as well as reducing habitat fragmentation and pipelines.”
Since the study, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers issued new guidelines to address the threat of earthquakes caused by fracking. The OGC also made seven recommendations, which include improving the accuracy of the Canadian National Seismograph Network in northeast B.C., performing geological and seismic assessments to identify pre-existing faulting, establishing induced seismicity monitoring and reporting Procedures and Requirements, and stationing ground motion sensors near selected northeast B.C. communities to quantify risk from ground motion.
Faith-based science. These are the same people that laugh at creationists.
More lefty scientists infected with Jor-El Syndrome (I’m the smart one, the planet will be destroyed if they don’t listen to me...)
These morons don’t seem to have a grasp on how deep down the shifts come from that are felt as earthquakes. Nor can they easily correlate those facts with how deep fracking is done.
Too bad. (apologies to the sane people that happen to live in CA.)
FMCDH(BITS)
Many scientists? How many? How was the question phrased? how many laughed at them for asking? Envi-ors are liars.
FR posters, doing the jobs that 'journalists' won't do. These are exactly the questions that should've been asked.
LMAO! Kevin Heffernan is a comedy actor from Canada known for his roles in Broken Lizard movies (i.e. Super Troopers, Beer Fest, and Club Dread). That's entirely too funny.
Given that the amount of water used in a day’s fracking cannot equal even 1/10,000 of one percent of the amount of rain that falls in an average rainstorm, then every drizzle must be responsible for hundreds of quakes. I had no idea we were having millions of quakes per year in the Seattle area alone.
I can see this happening. For example, if Rosie O'Donnell were to fall down a flight of stairs.....
Could it be that they just happened to have the same name?
See here for this Kevin Heffernan
http://www.zoominfo.com/#!search/profile/person?personId=1855113895&targetid=profile
BIO:
Vice President
Canadian Society for Unconventional Gas
Mr. Heffernan is a geologist with more than 30 years experience in resource development industries, including assignments across much of Canada as well as internationally for oil and gas, coal, pipeline and consulting companies.
Prior to joining the Canadian Society for Unconventional Gas (CSUG) in mid-2008, Kevin was Director, Government and Regulatory, at a private company developing unconventional gas resources including coalbed methane, tight sand and shale gas in western Canada. During his tenure with the company he also held management positions with various responsibilities, including environment and stakeholder engagement, as the company grew from start-up in 2001 to more than 1000 unconventional gas wells in 2008.
From 1990 - 2000 Kevin was employed at Nova Gas
Transmission, and subsequently TransCanada Pipelines, where he held various leadership and specialist positions in industry analysis, supply forecasting, and strategic planning.
CSUG 2006 Annual Report - Board of Directors
www.csug.ca, 10 Nov 2008 [cached]
Kevin Heffernan Manager, Regulatory Trident Exploration Corp.
Mr. Heffernan has a B.Sc. degree in Geology from the University of Saskatchewan. During the past 30 years, he has gained diverse experience in oil and gas, pipelines, and coal development. Through the 1980s, he worked as a consultant in project management and business development roles in Canada and several foreign countries. That period was followed by 10 years in planning and strategy with Nova Gas Transmission and TransCanada PipeLines. Since 2001, Mr. Heffernan has been with Trident, where he is currently responsible for regulatory functions.
If it becomes a “consensus” of scientists then it will be all over with, because then it becomes “fact”. It is still only “many” so we’re okay.
Seriously believing that humans have the ability to affect the planet on a global level.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico total discharge is estimated at 4.9 million barrels (210 million US gal). A mega-disaster? Not really. Apparently God created extra bacteria to eat it all.
“Sagan warned that if Saddam Hussein delivered on his threat to set fire to Kuwait's oil wells, so much black soot would be sent into the stratosphere that sunlight would be blocked and a variation of the “nuclear winter” scenario would occur. Hussein followed through on his threat and by the close of the war over 600 wells were on fire. But the fires had little environmental or climatic effect beyond the Gulf region and virtually no ill effects globally.” OOPS!
Chernobyl, “In 2012, the town of Pripyat, a short bicycle ride from the reactor is home to 10,000. Each year, another 800 move in. Tourists from across the world make the trek, take photographs, leave behind graffiti.” While many still claim the risk of illness and deformities, studies have shown no such risk. Tourists even tour the power plant itself. Some people have lived inside the exclusion zone since the meltdown. Plants & animals show no ill effects.
Hiroshima Nagasaki:
http://www.funonthenet.in/articles/hiroshima-nagasaki-today.html
Wouldn't/shouldn't Scientists know about things based on data and experimentation? What is this belief stuff?
They have also been used to handle used fracking water in some areas as well.
Qui considerat vigilia canes
(Who watches the watch dogs)
Many scientists
Real scientists or just Al Gore wannabees? Have they hired Prof. Mann to do a “hockey stick” chart for them. I hear that he and his “schience” can be rented cheaply.
The only thing fracking causes is SOCIALIST EARTHQUACKS.
Hysteria \Hys*te"ri*a\, n. [NL.: cf. F. hyst['e]rie. See
Hysteric.] (Med.)
A nervous affection, occurring almost exclusively in women,
in which the emotional and reflex excitability is
exaggerated, and the will power correspondingly diminished,
so that the patient loses control over the emotions, becomes
the victim of imaginary sensations, and often falls into
paroxism or fits.
[1913 Webster]
Note: The chief symptoms are convulsive, tossing movements of
the limbs and head, uncontrollable crying and laughing,
and a choking sensation as if a ball were lodged in the
throat. The affection presents the most varied
symptoms, often simulating those of the gravest
diseases, but generally curable by mental treatment
alone. Hysteric
““It’s very clear cut that disposing of waste fluids at depth can and does set off earthquakes,” Jones said.”
Let’s see...and your scientific proof of that would be???
Have to agree!
Injection of fluids at depth has been a well-established cause of small earthquakes for decades.
It took me all of 10 seconds to search Google Scholar and find over 19,000 scientific papers going back to the 1970s discussing human-induced seismicity from fluid injection wells.
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=injection+fluids+seismicity&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C47&as_sdtp=
Have you ever read an actual scientific paper in your entire life? If not, why are you posting on this thread?
I was struck by the coincidence and was commenting on it. I wasn’t saying they were one in the same.
“It took me all of 10 seconds to search Google Scholar and find over 19,000 scientific papers going back to the 1970s discussing human-induced seismicity from fluid injection wells.”
It took me all of 5 seconds to search Google Scholar and find over 900 scientific papers going back many years discussing the rogue planet, Nibiru, sometimes referred to as Planet X. This proves that Niburu exists and will cause a massive calamity on Earth, putting an end to human civilization.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.